A Familiar Dynamic Full of Unknowns
This past Sunday, Chile held general elections. Sunday’s results and forecasts suggest that José Antonio Kast of the far-right Republicanos will become Chile’s next president in the run-off on December 14. With the country currently experiencing a drive towards political extremes and instability, Kast’s presidency could unfold in two directions: it might either produce a Bukele-like regime focused on law and order that would potentially do away with democracy and the rule of law; or it could face the rapid growth of popular opposition to his austerity plans, possibly in the form of street protests.
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If It Looks Like a Duck
Wie urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material durch generative KI genutzt werden darf, zählt weltweit zu den meistdiskutierten Fragen des Urheberrechts. Der Ausgang der zahlreichen Verfahren gegen KI-Anbieter gilt vielen als grundlegende Entscheidung über die Zukunft sowohl generativer KI als auch des kulturellen Schaffens. Das Landgericht München hat nun als erstes Gericht in der EU darüber entschieden, wie die Nutzung urheberrechtlich geschützter Materialien durch generative KI-Modelle rechtlich zu bewerten ist.
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Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Last week, the LIBE of the European Parliament debated a Draft Report and a series of amendments to the Commission’s Proposal for a Return Regulation. The Proposal seeks to increase the EU’s return rate, which has not exceeded 20% in recent years. In 2024, out of 453,380 individuals ordered to leave the EU, only 110,385 returned to their countries of origin. The Proposal legalises the possibility of sending migrants to return hubs located in third countries outside of the EU. This entrenches their marginalisation, whilst eroding migrants’ human rights protections.
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The Omnibus Package of the EU Commission
The European Commission is planning a fundamental overhaul of European digital regulation, and it wants to move quickly. On 19 November, it intends to publish draft legislation for an omnibus package designed to simplify, reduce bureaucracy, and harmonise various legal acts. The draft was leaked last week, and it is a tough one for everyone who appreciates fundamental rights-oriented regulation. If the proposals obtain the necessary majorities in the legislative process, the cornerstones of data protection law would be fundamentally changed.
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Der Plan von der Abschaffung des Asyls
Vom Schutzrecht zur Fiktion
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Wenn Demokratie blockiert wird
Im November 2025 soll in Gießen die neue AfD-Jugendorganisation gegründet werden. Das Netzwerk „Widersetzen“ mobilisiert zu Blockaden, um genau das zu verhindern. Solche Verhinderungsaktionen sind längst Teil einer neuen Protestpraxis, die nicht mehr nur widerspricht, sondern politische Betätigung gezielt unterbindet. Damit rückt eine heikle Frage in den Mittelpunkt: Wann kippt Protest in eine Gefahr für die Demokratie selbst?
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Not All Mandates Are Equal
The European Parliament, following the recommendations of its Committee on Legal Affairs, voted against waiving the immunity of two of its Members elected in Hungary, Péter Magyar and Klára Dobrev on the requests of the Hungarian authorities in early October 2025. In determining the fate of representatives elected in a Member State that is no longer democratic, the European Parliament reached the right decision, based on the wrong premises. Undemocratically elected MEPs should enjoy immunity only if they belong to the undemocratic regime’s opposition and have no record of dismantling democratic institutions.
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The Omnibus Road to Constitutional Drift
The European Union is undergoing a fundamental transformation in the way it makes law. Responding to calls for simplification and competitiveness, echoed and amplified by demands of the US Administration, the Commission has embraced omnibus legislation – single acts that amend multiple legal instruments across disparate regulatory domains – as the principal mechanism for systematic deregulatory reform. Once limited to technical consolidation, the omnibus has become a vehicle for substantive policy change. This shift fundamentally alters the procedural architecture through which regulatory change occurs.
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One Step Back and Two Steps Forward
In May, after years of litigation, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm rendered its final decision in Lliuya v. RWE AG – a landmark case in which a Peruvian farmer sought to hold the German energy giant RWE financially responsible for measures protecting his property from a potential glacier flood. Although the Court rejected the claim in the end, the judgment has been celebrated as a “success without victory” due to the potential precedent effect in terms of corporate liability. The true significance of the Lliuya v. RWE decision lies not in its dismissal of the plaintiff’s claim, but in the court’s reasoning on extraterritoriality, causality, and preventive protection.
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CURRENT DEBATES
Enabling Access, Fostering Innovation: Towards a Digital Knowledge Agenda in Europe
Access to knowledge and information is essential to foster innovation. In the EU, existing copyright rules pose significant barriers to research and education. Instead of promoting access to knowledge resources, copyright creates legal uncertainty for researchers and educators and enables information intermediaries to exercise strict control over the use of protected works. This symposium proposes ways out of the copyright conundrum by rethinking copyright as an access right. It is the outcome of a conference held in the European Parliament on 10 July 2025.
Read all articles >>Defund Meat
Meat is an embodied symbol of the mounting and interrelated environmental and public health crises that have become characteristic of our era: climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, pandemics, food insecurity, unhealthy and unsustainable diets, and institutionalised animal suffering. Drawing from the Defund Meat conference in January in Heidelberg, this blog symposium moves the meat question from the margins into the spotlight. Convened by Saskia Stucki and Anne Peters, the symposium is supported by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law.
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Volume 7,Issue 2
July 2025
JUS COGENS
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Killing Hitler Word by Word: The Oath as Apocalyptic Lawmaking
GREGOR NOLL
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Adjudicating Climate Protest as a Tool of Modern Republicanism
DMITRII KUZNETSOV
OUR LATEST PUBLICATION
Friedrich Zillessen (Hrsg.)
Die vorbereitete Demokratie:
Resilienz durch Antizipation im Thüringen-Projekt
Was wäre, wenn autoritär-populistische Akteure in Thüringen Zugang zu staatlichen Machtmitteln erhielten? Wie würden sie vorgehen, um ihr eigenes Abgewähltwerden zu erschweren? Welche rechtlichen und institutionellen Spielräume stünden ihnen offen?
Für diesen Sammelband haben wir 35 Blogposts aus dem Thüringen-Projekt ausgewählt, die diesen Fragen nachgehen und über tagespolitische Ereignisse hinaus Relevanz entfalten. Die Beiträge testen Schwachstellen, entwickeln Szenarien und führen die Debatte über Resilienz weiter – und tragen so dazu bei, dass die Demokratie besonders dann wehrhaft ist, wenn sie vorbereitet ist.
PROJECTS
VB Security and Crime
In cooperation with:
VB Security and Crime is a cooperation of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (MPI-CSL) and the Verfassungsblog in the areas of public security law and criminal law. The MPI-CSL Institute is a member of the Max Planck Law network.
Das Justiz-Projekt
Weltweit gerät die unabhängige und unparteiische Justiz unter den Druck des autoritären Populismus.
Wie verwundbar ist die rechtsprechende Gewalt in Deutschland – im Bund und in den Ländern?
VB Security and Crime
In cooperation with:
VB Security and Crime is a cooperation of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (MPI-CSL) and the Verfassungsblog in the areas of public security law and criminal law. The MPI-CSL Institute is a member of the Max Planck Law network.